Compensation set for French porter dubbed 'Basil Fawlty'

A French porter is to receive a five-figure payout after his former colleagues kept calling him names including 'Basil Fawlty' and 'Inspector Clouseau'.

Appadoure Basile successfully sued his ex-employer, the Royal College of General Practitioners, for sexual harassment and sex discrimination.

Other names he was called include 'Basil Brush', 'French w***er' and 'French t***er'.

Furthermore, his ex-manager Nicholas Rogers - who was also found guilty - would apparently make "sexual hand gestures" at him or start the day by asking: "How's it hanging?"

The court came to the conclusion that 'Inspector Clouseau' was a "humiliating" nickname due to Clouseau being a "British comic creation of a stereotypically bumbling French character".

Basile, who has been living in London since 1998 and has a "discernible French accent", was refused claims of race discrimination and unfair dismissal due to it being more than three months since his redundancy from the college in 2010.

However, his lawyers believe that his former employer still faces a bill of approximately £100,000 ($160,000) taking into account the payout and legal fees.